Archive for the ‘Classic Glass Corvette Club’ tag

Whatever your politics, it’s hard to question the sacrifices that America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines make for this country. The all-volunteer force gets sent around the world for as much as a year or more at a time, millions of Americans stepping up to serve, often putting themselves in harm’s way in foreign lands where hostility runs deep. It’s a hard job and they deserve our respect and appreciation.

Fortunately, there are people who really step up and honor those troops. Take the Classic Glass Corvette Club of Marietta, Georgia, for example, who did a partial restoration on Sgt. First Class Adam Troxel’s 1980 Corvette while he was deployed in Kuwait for the better part of 2011. A stunned Troxel had no idea the work was going on until earlier this month, when he was presented with the refreshed car in the showroom of Day’s Chevrolet in Marietta in front of 150 people, including 65 members of the club who brought their ‘Vettes along for the big reveal.

SFC Troxel had asked his wife, Holly, to get the brakes done while he was gone, but unbeknownst to him, Holly had other ideas and approached her friend and club member Scott Oliver about how to best spend Adam’s $6,000 re-enlistment bonus. Scott brought the idea to the club about taking care of a soldier, and the club went for it, springing into action and working their connections in the Corvette community. “We jumped on it,” club member Calvin Cruce said. “It was something we wanted to do. We just kind of picked the ball up and ran with it. It worked out just really wonderfully for us and for him. Through club members’ contacts, through the generosity of the Corvette community in general, we were able to do a mostly cosmetic restoration of the exterior and the interior.”

Troxel had traded a Bronco for the Corvette early in 2011, with plans to get the running, but otherwise rough car back in shape, but a nine-month deployment to Kuwait put those plans on hold. While he was away, the Corvette spent a lot of time at the home of Carl and Tonie Etter, founding members of the Classic Glass club. Their home shop, where Carl has restored several ‘Vettes, is well equipped to handle the job. Club member Calvin Cruce said that Carl Etter, “had a lot of experience, all of the tools and everything we needed as we put the car together. It would have been very difficult to do it without him.”

Club members did a lot more than just a brake job: They replaced virtually the entire braking system with new pads, rotors, calipers and lines throughout. They also re-did the interior, which one club member said “looked like a pack of wolves were let loose in there.” According to Cruce, “The biggest part of the restoration was getting it repainted. Through one of the contacts in our club, there was a company called Collision Pro, here in Marietta, that agreed to paint the car. They are somewhat well known for restoring Corvettes. They know what they’re doing. They spent a lot of hours repairing the bodywork and repainting it. We could not have done what we did without Collision Pro. They gave us a ridiculously low price, but they wanted to be involved in the project. They were great.” For paint, they chose the 2000 model year Corvette Torch Red.

Beyond doing a great service for a deserving soldier, the project had its benefits to the club as well, despite the hard work and long hours they put in. “We did it because we wanted to,” Cruce said . “It was a labor of love. I will say that the entire Corvette community that we came in contact with stepped up and just did things above and beyond. Without a doubt, it was a lot of fun for us because we bonded together as a club as we did it. It was well worth all the man hours that we put into it just to see Adam’s face when he first saw the car. I can think of probably a dozen people who spent a lot of long hours working on the car. Some of them had mechanical ability, but had never restored a Corvette before, so it was a learning process for them. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed it. It was hard work. It was frustrating sometimes. But the end game was worth every minute of it, every skinned knuckle, every frustrating thing that we ran into.”

Many parts, supplies and services were either donated or heavily discounted. “I have to applaud the Corvette community in general for stepping up and doing what needed to be done and helping us make this happen,” Cruce said. “I have always said that the car brings us together, but the people that you meet in the Corvette hobby are just super people. This project proved that beyond the shadow of a doubt. I am personally proud to be part of that community. It just renewed my faith in humankind. It was just a wonderful project. I don’t think anybody who had any sort of contact with it would not be extremely happy.”